On counteracting academic corruption

On December 15, 2016, a conference of employees and students was held at the Russian State Humanitarian University, at which they adopted a new strategic development program. Below is a written version of my speech in the discussion.

The program of the program mentioned " reducing the positions of the RSU in the educational environment due to scandalous situations discrediting the reputation of the university ." This is an unconscious and ambiguous formulation, because the scandal of the scandal is discord. It is one thing if people publicly have done some kind of outrage (which it seems that it did not reach us); And another thing-if some shameful secret has revealed-then it is she who discloses the reputation, and not the fact of its exposure. Such a scandal is not a disaster in itself, but a symptom of another trouble.

Here is an example of such a scandalous situation: fake dissertations have been defended in our university for a long time, and people with such dissertations still work in it. Three years ago, when they spoke loudly about this, this could still be considered unverified accusations or rumors; Today, after a series of inspections and in the absence of refutations, it is necessary to confidently say that "facts have taken place." They were investigated by a special commission created by the new leadership of the RSUSU, but then its activities were stopped without the announcement of the results; There is no mention of it on the university’s website. Such a silence once again confirms the very thing that they are trying to silence.

It should be called a spade a spade: the statement of fake dissertations is corruption, a special type of university, academic corruption, and abuse of scientific certification power. Whatever the relationship and calculations between its participants, the result is important: it decomposed, spoiled, corrupt - in the literal sense of this Latin verb - our university, its professional morality. That is why today the public reputation of the Russian State University looks like this: they have stamped fakes for years, and they still do not dare to admit this; Probably they are all involved in this ...

In fact, this, of course, is not so. Corruptions are involved in very few, and it is necessary that they compensate for the damage they caused. They assigned themselves, wasted the moral capital of the Russian State University - let them compensate for the embezzlement at their own expense. This is precisely about compensation for damage, and not about punishment or retaliation-no disciplinary sanctions are required, it is not necessary to dismiss or unclench someone, just bring the investigation and provide publicity with certified facts. Having done this, the university will confirm its exactingness to the scientific and moral quality of their own work, cease to share responsibility with people who have been deceiving him and correct his reputation. This will strengthen the authority of his leadership - in the team, in society and even in state authorities.

I am convinced that the fight against corruption is strategic and should be reflected in the university development program. The trust between us and to all of us, without which most of the tasks of the program will remain with good wishes, depends on her: no one will believe them, which means that they will not get seriously.

I propose more accurately to formulate the mentioned point of the program: “ Reducing the positions of the RSU in the educational environment due to the facts of academic corruption that defeated the reputation of the university ,” and to introduce an additional item to the program: “ Combation of academic corruption, and, in particular, to investigate the facts of writing and approving falsified dissertations in the Russian State University with the publication of the results of the investigation .”

This speech follows the order that I received by me, the conference delegate, from the elected assembly of researchers of the Russian State University. The position expressed here as a whole is our common, collective opinion, recorded by unanimous voting. I am sure that many other colleagues will agree with us.

A number of employees and teachers of the RSUSU (44 people) also signed an appeal to the rector of the university, the text of which I present to the addressee.

"Appeal to the rector of the RSUSU
We, the unwitting down teachers and researchers of the Russian State University, consider it fundamentally important for the reputation and future fate of the university to cleanse his falsifications, for years admitted during the consideration of candidate and doctoral dissertations.
We consider it erroneous to the scientific council’s decision to terminate the investigation of these falsifications, which was started by the commission on incorrect borrowings in the dissertations, and require this work as part of a special independent body and with the vowel publication of its results.
Moscow, RSUSU, November 30, 2016. "

After the discussion, my amendments to the project were not taken to the vote. The project of the program is adopted as a basis and will be finalized; Perhaps, when refinement in it, this topic will not be lost.

Sergey Zenkin,
ch. scientific. sore. RSU, doct. Filol. sciences